FE pay – more strikes hit remaining target IOU colleges:

Members at four of the target IOU colleges delivered two more days of strike action as they escalated their campaigns for pay justice. Members were out in force at College of North-West London, Dearne Valley, Doncaster and Rotherham Colleges. The days’ activity included picketing and even an ‘Alternative Open Day’ at College of North-West London, in strikers held a day of alternative classes offering the opportunity to ‘build a computer in 10 minutes’ as well as providing masterclasses in plumbing and how to be a success in enterprise. All four colleges have categorically refused to honour a ground-breaking national pay deal, which was thrashed out in 2004, that should have a left a mid-ranking further education lecturer earning £4,511 more a year.

UCU head of further education, Barry Lovejoy, said: “The colleges only have themselves to blame for today’s disruption. The staff are not greedy; they are merely asking for the money they should have been paid four years ago. It is the intransigence of the ‘IOU colleges’ that has pushed members' patience too far and forced them into today’s industrial action". News of the strikes featured on BBC Radio Sheffield, where UCU Regional Official for Yorkshire and Humberside Russ Escritt was interviewed. There were also reports on Trax FM, and Rother FM , and in the following publications:

http://www.thestar.co.uk/doncaster/College-staff-in-wage-strike.5101722.jp - Sheffield Star

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/localnews/College-staff-set-for-fresh.5106654.jp - Yorkshire Post

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/7960320.stm - BBC News website

http://www.southyorkshiretimes.co.uk/news/College-lecturers-go-out-on.5107847.jp - South Yorkshire Times

http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/headlines/Lecturers-strike-hits-students.5110607.jp - Sheffield Telegraph

On the eve of the strike, there was good news as members at Sussex Downs College voted overwhelmingly to lift the threat of strike action following management agreement to open talks on implementing the 2004 pay agreement. Only a handful of the original 18 target colleges are now still outstanding and UCU is now planning the next phase of the campaign to ensure that the last remaining colleges are brought on board and to widen the campaign out.

Joining UCU as a fractional lecturer

Many staff at the college are both lecturers and practitioners. It's worth noting that UCU subscriptions count as membership of a professional organisation, so when you come to do your tax returns you can off set the majority of your subscription payments.

This could make a real difference to potential members who only do a small amount of teaching at the college, providing them with the same membership benefits as full time members of staff.

Current National UCU subscription rates, per month
F1	Earnings - £40,000 & over	£15.32
F2	Earnings - £20,000 to £39,999	£13.93
F3	Earnings - £10,000 to £19,999	£8.62
F4	Earnings - £5,000 to £9,999	£3.90
F5	Earnings - below £5,000	£2.23

Comparison of LCAD & Harmonised Pay Scales

n.b. LCAD pay spine & increments to the left, 2004 Harmonised Payspine in blue on the right (Unqualified lecturer spine in light blue)

Corporate Aims

It’s good to see that both LCADUCU and Management want the same thing in “applying consistent recruitment procedures for promotions.” (Corporate Aims & Objectives 2008 – 2013, Theme 3: Valuing Staff) However, where we differ is seeing staffing as an integral part of the college. Management by contract want to “to employ the College’s cash reserves to invest in buildings, facilities and equipment that will further improve the students and staff working and social environments.” (Corporate Aims & Objectives 2008 – 2013, Theme 6: Making the best use of funding available for the benefit of students). No mention of investing in staff, so, while they want to “attract, retain and further develop high quality academic and support staff with the necessary qualifications and experience to succeed in their roles” they’re not prepared to pay for it.

Support your colleagues in the Yorkshire IOU FE Colleges

Support your colleagues in the Yorkshire IOU FE Colleges – Strike days on 24 and 25 March
The news that action is being suspended at three more colleges shows that membership pressure is continuing to tell in the campaign to win implementation of the 2004 pay agreement in FE.

However, at three colleges in South Yorkshire members will be taking two days of strike action starting tomorrow as they continue to push their intransigent managers. Members at Dearne Valley College, Rotherham College of Art and Technology and at Doncaster, where the additional threat of job cuts looms, will be walking out tomorrow and they need your support.

***WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP***
Join the pickets: If you are near one of the colleges, the best thing you could do on the strike days themselves is head over to visit the pickets at your nearest college. They will really appreciate the solidarity as it helps to show that the national union is behind them. Locate your nearest branch here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=3029

Send messages of support: the branches are telling us that the emailed messages of support they have already received have been a tremendous boost to morale. It only takes a second. Email the branch secretaries your message of support. Email them to the branches direct or head office will pass them on. Contact: jwhite@ucu.org.uk

Donate money: these members will have lost a total of three days’ pay by the end of Wednesday. You can help support their fight by donating to the union’s fighting fund. Download the form here to donate: http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/0/l/ioufightingfund_donateform.pdf

***WHAT’S HAPPENING AND WHO TO CONTACT***:
DEARNE VALLEY COLLEGE - Staff will be on picket lines from 7.30am to 9.30am at the main entrances to the college’s Rotherham and Rockingham campuses.
Rotherham Campus:
Rockingham Campus:
Contact: – Joan Bland- jbland@dearne-coll.ac.uk
Tony Sables – 07955 342 683

ROTHERHAM COLLEGE
Staff will be joined by local students on picket lines at the Town Centre site (Howard Building entrance) and Rother Valley site (Doe Quarry entrance) from 7am.
Town Centre site:
Rother Valley site:
Contacts: – Chloe Stothard - cstothard@rotherham.ac.uk
Tom Donaldson, 0781 789 5060

DONCASTER COLLEGE - members will on picket lines from 7am to 9am at the college’s Hub and High Melton campus
main Hub campus:
High Melton Site:
Contact: – Rodney Challis - rodneychallis@googlemail.com - 0796 355 6437

COLLEGE OF NORTH-WEST LONDON
Staff will be on picket lines at the college’s three sites for the entire duration of the 48 hour strike - Dudden Hill, Wembley Park and Kilburn. On Wednesday 25, members will lobby dignitaries – including Lord Young- as they arrive for the opening of the college’s new Telford building.
Dudden Hill:
Wembley Park:
Kilburn:
Contact: Indro Sen – 07737 288 055

£400k surplus at LCAD

Take a moment to read the following extract from the information sent to prospective applicants for the recent principles job.

'Revenue Funding

The College has three main sources of funding. In 2008/9 we forecast that the LSC will provide £3.9M, HEFCE £4.3M and fees £3.6M. Most (£3.3M) of the latter is from HE students paying the maximum permissible top-up fee of £3,000 plus inflation. The total income is forecast to be £12.5M. The College holds the LSC category A for funding health and has not had an operating deficit since incorporation in 1993. The College is forecasting an operating surplus of £400K for 2008/9, having achieved a similar figure in 2007/8.'

Since when have educational institutions been in the business of generating a year on year surplus?
Also, given the £400k operating surplus last year, which looks like being repeated this year, surely we have enough money in the coffers to adequately remunerate our fantastic staff and also implement the 2004 harmonised pay spine.

Overwhelming Branch Support For Involvement In The IOU Campaign

Following a recent poll, the Leeds College of Art UCU has overwhelmingly voted in favour of joining the national UCU I.O.U. campaign.

74% of members indicated that they would like the branch to join with Suffolk New College, City College Birmingham and Peterborough College in pushing for implementation of the 2004 nationally agreed harmonised pay spine. Over 50% of FE colleges currently are working to this pay spine and lots more are in the process of implementation.

The harmonised pay spine is an eight point spine which peaks at £34,587. Also, importantly it also includes an automatic incremental payrise annually which, of course, means that staff can progress rapidly up the payspine and avoid the 'glass ceilings' that a lot of us currently find at LCAD.

Management at the college have been formally notified of our intention to join the IOU campaign and, hopefully, fruitful dialogue about the implementation of the harmonised payspine will commence soon.

IOU Campaign
Currently Harmonised Colleges

IOU - No more teaching on the cheap Campaign

The main issue of the IOU campaign is basically that, despite the AoC and the unions reaching a nationally agreed pay scale in 2004 (5 years ago now!) a lot of colleges are still to implement this yet, ourselves included. Realistically all colleges have had reasonable time to implement this pay scale and the IOU campaign is a national campaign designed to force uncompliant colleges into harmonisation. (over 50% of colleges are operating on this harmonised pay spine now)

The harmonised national pay scale, designed to provide higher salaries for new lecturers and faster progression to the top points, is £22,857-34,587 spread over 8 increments. In addition the harmonised pay spine has an automatic incremental wage rise annually.

Our salary currently only reaches £32, 588 (top of grade C) and by our reckoning has 11 incremental points. Most importantly there is NO AUTOMATIC INCREMENTAL WAGE RISE at LCAD. Incremental rises are rare and seemingly given out at the whim of senior management so the harmonised pay spine's automatic increment would be of most benefit to LCAD staff.

In the first wave of action in Feb, 11 colleges took strike action to force the employers hand

We would be joining in the 2nd wave (the only branch in Yorkshire as we understand it) with a number of other colleges taking similar action. If there was to be strike action it would occur around April
time but of course, we are seeking to implement the harmonised pay spine without having to resort to striking.

Wikipedia boast

It is interesting to note that Leeds College of Art's Wikipedia entry boasts of 'It is also a college in good financial shape - presently in the black, according to The Independent newspaper', while at the same time refuses to sign up to the harmonised payscale and automatic increments. I wonder if the two are connected?

IOU - No more teaching on the cheap Campaign

As you are no doubt aware, despite the recent union won 3.2% salary increase, wage levels at LCAD still fall behind most other institutions in the FE sector. Despite recent meetings between LCAD UCU and management, there is still little or no sign of moves to redress this imbalance.

2004 saw the arrival of a nationally agreed 8-point pay scale (£22,857 – 34,587 with automatic annual increment), which was to be implemented across the sector. Initial implementation was slow but now well over 50% of the sector operates to this harmonised pay spine. LCAD has not implemented this pay spine and seems to be reticent to do so.

This situation is deeply infuriating and because of this LCAD UCU is considering joining the 2nd wave of UCU’s National I.O.U. campaign which aims to force harmonisation in institutions that have yet to make serious moves towards it. See link -
http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=3636
http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2166

Please get in touch with Branch Reps to express your interest in involving LCAD with this national campaign

The TUC survey on climate change

The TUC survey on climate change and greening the workplace will close on Friday 20 March. We’ve had a good response so far – but are still keen to hear from as many union reps and activists as possible.
The survey is on LRD’s website:
http://www.lrd.org.uk/surveys/climate/

Please spend a few minutes completing the questionnaire as soon as possible.